The present invention relates to a dolly for moving containers and more specifically to a multi-purpose dolly.
In general, a typical facility or warehouse may have a variety of different cylindrical containers which must be transported from one location to another. Accordingly, a variety of conventional, single size dollies must be available to accommodate movement of these various sized containers. Common cylindrical containers include 55-gallon drums, 30-gallon drums, 5-gallon buckets, and standard propane tanks of varying capacity. In order to move each of these various sized containers, it is desirable to obtain multiple drum dollies, each having a diameter corresponding to a specific container size. It may further be desirable to have multiple dollies of each size to enable movement of more than one container at a time by multiple workers.
The drum dollies used for transporting or moving cylindrical drums of material include a cylindrical outer ring and interior members which extend diametrically between the outer ring. The cylindrical ring is slightly larger than the outer diameter of the container or drum to be moved by the dolly. The interior members allow larger sized dollies to be used to transport smaller drums by preventing these drums from falling through the outer ring. These types of dollies are generally provided with wheels or casters mounted below the outer ring to allow movement thereof.
A shortcoming which exists in this market relates to the hardware necessary to work with the various drums. Drums which may be transported using these dollies may have different types and/or sizes of plugs and seals. These plugs are placed in a pour hole located in the drum with a seal located over the plug to prevent leakage of the material located therein during transport, for example. In order to remove such seals and plugs, one of several wrenches designed particularly for removing drum seals and plugs is used. These wrenches are provided with multiple sized heads so that different wrenches are not required for each type of plug or seal. A problem with this is that if the wrench is not carried by the worker, it may be difficult to open or unseal these drums.
Finally, the present dolly designs are difficult to operate given the various weights of drums being moved. Particularly with 55-gallon drums, the positioning of the dolly underneath the drum requires two persons due to the weight of the drum. This requires that more than one person be available to transport drums within a warehouse of facility which ineffectively utilizes the facilities"" resources.
The objects of the invention are to alleviate the shortcomings of the prior art.
The objects of the invention have been accomplished by providing a container dolly having a removable handle attached to the base of the dolly. The handle is provided with a plug and seal wrench attached near one end thereof. A tilting lever and a plug removal wrench are attached near an opposite end of the handle. The tilting lever may be used to tilt a 55-gallon drum, for example, so that the dolly base may be slid underneath the drum, requiring only one person to move the drum. The wrenches are fixedly attached to the handle, each being of a conventional type used to remove a multitude of types of plugs and seals.
The present invention provides a dolly for transporting material containers comprising a base having a wheel attached thereto. A handle is removably attached to the base and at least one wrench is fixedly attached to the handle.
The present invention further provides a dolly for transporting material containers comprising a base having a wheel attached thereto. A handle is removably attached to the base and a tilting lever is fixedly secured to the handle, whereby a portion of the material container is raised and the base is positioned underneath the material container.
The present invention also provides a dolly for transporting material containers comprising a base having a pair of wheels attached thereto. A handle support is fixedly attached to the base and a handle is removably attached to the handle support. The handle has two ends. At least one wrench and a tilting lever are fixedly attached to the handle, whereby a portion of the material container is raised and the base is positioned underneath the material container.
The present invention also provides a method for transporting material containers comprising removing a handle of a dolly from a base of the dolly, tilting the material container with the handle, and sliding the base underneath the material container. The method further includes lowering the material container, reattaching the handle to the base, and pulling the dolly to a desired location.
An advantage of the present invention is that drums of significant weight may be moved by a single person.
A further advantage is that the plug and seal wrenches required to open drums are fixedly mounted to the handle so that they do not have to be separately carried by the worker.